Posts tagged #leaf-out

A Spring that Lasts Forever

IMG_2072-April 03, 2019.jpg

When I lived in Alaska springtime was so short that you missed it if you blinked, I wrote about that last week. In Madison I don’t remember spring being that spectacular, other than the Magnolia outside my work blooming. And maybe that was one of the reasons but I also think spring came very late to Madison and Wisconsin last year.

April 28th 2018, Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin:

When we first got here to NYC I was actually quite surprised by all the trees and green space almost everywhere on Manhattan (I mean, not including Central Park of course). Madison also has a huge amount of green space, even more than NYC, and in Alaska you basically lived in the forest so. NYC Parks also has this collaboration with the community called Green Thumb as I mentioned earlier, and the community gardens are always so pretty. There are quite a lot of them around Harlem. We also have quite a few large parks nearby. Randall Island is an island in the East River, then we have Marcus Garvey Park and Morningside Park here in Harlem and around Columbia.

March 26th 2019, Morningside Park:

April 1st 2019, Washington Square Park:

April 3rd 2019, Central Park:

We went to Colorado last weekend and the cherries on the west side of Onassis reservoir had just started to bloom. Once I got back I was unsure how much would still be blooming, and to my surprise it still was. Yesterday we walked by the cherry trees on the west side of the reservoir again and those trees are on their way out. But there are a ton of other cherry trees (I think they are) still waiting to bloom, and on the east side of the reservoir there are trees blooming too.

April 3rd 2019, Central Park:

Another thing I am quite surprised about are all the apps and scripts and just about anything that has been created for users who are interested in NYC and everything you could possibly think of. For instance I found this guide from the Central Park Conservancy which guides you through all the spring blooming of Central Park. According to the guide there are Yoshino Cherry trees on the east side, and Kwanzan trees on the west side of the reservoir. But the ones on the west side look more like Okame Cherry trees. The west side cherries are more pink, if those are what I have been seeing, while the Yoshino are more white (at least if you stand on the west side looking across the reservoir and the east side cherry trees). You can also visit the bloom guide for the most popular flowers on their website, and you can also head to NYC parks where they list what trees and flowers have started to bloom.

Around Columbia Cherry trees and Magnolias are in full bloom or at least reaching full bloom. I am used to Magnolia having a full bloom for a few days before it starts to taper off. But that all also depends on temperature and rain of course.

Springtime and the case of Phenological Mismatch

March 30th, 2019. Central Park

March 30th, 2019. Central Park

Signs of Spring

Budburst and Leafout

When I lived in Alaska the timing of spring was maybe more apparent compared to what it is here, in New York City. Fairbanks, AK, usually has some snow cover that lasts from October to April, sometimes even May. There are two main factors that drive a plant species budburst and leafout, temperature and light. In Fairbanks you get the right amount of light pretty early (late February-early March), so most of the time the plants are sitting around waiting for the ideal temperature. Once the warmer weather comes along and the plants accumulate enough warmth you will see budburst and leafout. The warmer temperature acts as a cue for the plant, and triggers physiological changes that starts the budburst. Leafout is so apparent around Fairbanks that you can see a change in color of the deciduous trees between morning and afternoon. You can leave town for a week during end of winter and come back to summer. I have posted the video below before, and it shows how fast spring comes and evolve in Fairbanks. It really is remarkable to see spring happen this fast, and I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

May 26th, 2013 Alaska:

April 26th, 2014 Alaska:

May 3rd, 2014. Alaska:

April 25th, 2015. Alaska:

2017 we went back to Alaska and skied in Denali on April 1st, it was an extraordinary warm spring there then, something that keeps repeating itself again, and again, and yet again. Of course it makes you extremely happy after a long dark winter, but at the same time it definitely makes you worried. Worried not only about the danger to local communities that a warm spring brings (open water instead of ice covered streams along common travel routes), but also the ecological consequences, and the possibility for a phenological mismatch to occur.

April 1st, 2017. Alaska:

Currently Alaska is experienced the highest increase in temperature world wide, and it is projected to increase into the future as well. In a state where light usually is not a problem, a shift in temperature in the early spring can be devastating for certain species. Scientists often talk about the term phenological mismatch. When two or more life cycles, of certain species that generally overlap, all of a sudden don’t overlap any longer, this results in a phenological mismatch. What this means, is that certain species are dependent on other species, let it be insects that are crucial for certain bird species once they arrive or native bird species that depend on the insects for their hatchlings. Or insects that hatch on time to get their life-cycle timed with certain flowering plants. If one or the other is delayed or sped up, and synchrony is disrupted, it can be detrimental for certain species. We know that changes in the lower level of the ecosystem chain, can have huge effect on the upper level. Just last week Alaska broke the record of the earliest warmest day when it hit 70 degree F.

Flowering Magnolia in Madison 2018:

This past weekend we walked through Central Park and got a first look at spring here. The Magnolia is already blooming, in Madison that didn’t happen until mid-April and in Alaska snow is usually still on the ground right now as I mentioned earlier. But, then again, it’s all a matter or temperature once the sunlight is sufficient. This was also one of the first times I really felt like a New Yorker. The feeling that I am not just here for the weekend, the week, this month or the next 6 months. I never know how to identify myself after I move to a new city, especially now when I have been in the US for so long. If people ask me where I am from, should I say Madison, Fairbanks, New York or Stockholm. Who am I really, and why do we always identify ourselves with the origin of our lives? I guess in one sense we are all shaped by our origins, but at one point we will have lived longer somewhere else other than our birth place, and who are we then? There is a quote that I really like, from a Salomon running movie about Anna Frost, about home that really identifies how I feel about Home. I don’t know where the quote originated from, or if it’s a mix of several quotes put together.

Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your mind, something you dream about and think about. Maybe it’s not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visited. Maybe Home is just a collection of memories and our roots, based on nostalgia

Central Park March 30th, 2019:

What are the signs of spring where you are, and did spring come early?

Signs of Spring, Green-Up in Alaska

Spring

Green-up

Yesterday green-up happened in Fairbanks. Green-up day is defined as the day that bud-burst happens and leaf-out slowly begin. This date varies from year to year of course, but this year it set the record. Last year for instance this did not happen until May 3rd so this clearly is a lot earlier compared to then. Of course, I have already been killing mosquitos...

Igår så  var det den officiella dagen för vår här i Fairbanks. Den dagen definieras av att knopparna brister och löven börjar komma ut. Datumet för detta är förstås väldigt olika från år till år, men detta år var rekord tidigt, ungefär en vecka innan det brukar hända. Förra året till exempel så hände inte detta förrän 3e Maj. Med den officiella våren kommer även myggorna...

 

Green-up is always so cool, you can literally see the change in color from the morning to the evening. In 2013 this didn't happen until May 26th for instance. 

Here is a video from a few years back I found on youtube to show you how fast this happens. 

Våren här är alltid spektakulär, eftersom den kommer över så kort tid, träden kan verkligen ändra färg från morgonen till kvällen. 2013 så hände inte detta förrän den 26e Maj. 

Nedan är en video från det året som jag hittade på youtube, den visar verkligen hur fort det går.